Psychological exercises to relieve emotional stress

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Stress is a dangerous emotional state inherent in most people of our time. It not only affects our health, but also affects our colleagues and loved ones and can lead to major depression and sleep disturbances.

Every person should be able to deal with stress

Therefore, you need to deal with stress. Exercises to relieve stress will help with this. According to doctors, stress is a combination of the body’s reactions to stimuli or threats. They manifest themselves in a state of physical or moral stress.

When will psychological exercises help with emotional stress?

Stress is the body’s attempt to adapt to new environmental conditions, which can cause psychological, emotional and physical stress under the influence of various internal and external factors.

The causes of stress can be different:

• physical stress;
• problems in the family or at work;
• internal doubts;
• unconscious anxieties;
• panic attacks.

Any stress, strong or weak, has a three-level mechanism of manifestation: the impacting stress factor, the reaction to it and the body’s attempt to adapt to new conditions. Thus, any stress is a reaction to new and little-known stimuli to which a person must get used.

On a daily basis, stress can manifest itself in minor physical changes such as:

• excessive muscle tension;
• hand trembling;
• accelerated breathing rhythm;
• timidity;
• anxiety over small things;
• voice trembling.

In the development of each person and his character, stress and the reaction to it are an integral part .
The ability to adapt to new situations, develop self-control, learn to analyze and evaluate is an important outcome of the response to overcoming stress. Therefore, minor stress is actually beneficial and promotes personal development. In psychology, they are called beneficial stress or eustress, and it is characteristic of the first two stages of overcoming stress, when the body is able to overcome anxiety, changes, and even acquires a mechanism for quickly adapting to new challenges in the future. Therefore, the first and second stages of adaptation to stress develop stress resistance and self-control in a person.

On the other hand, excessive stress or distress, which the body can no longer cope with, has completely opposite effects on a person, and refers to the last, third stage of the body's response to stress - the stage of exhaustion.

Psychological exercises for relieving emotional stress are different, and depend on what stressors (stress factors) affect the body, and what personal characteristics of each person.
The fastest ways to relieve tension:

• deep breathing through the nose;
• relaxation while lying down, concentrating on parts of the body;
• distraction;
• The favorite music;
• solve a crossword puzzle or watch a video;
• switch to communication with other people, distract your thoughts;
• take a contrast shower;
• light exercise.

Psychological exercises for relieving emotional stress will be most effective if a person is aware of the discomfort associated with a particular situation and knows how to switch.

How does stress affect the human body?

Against the background of psycho-emotional or physical stress, a large amount of stress hormones - adrenaline, cortisol, vasopressin - are released into the blood. Under their influence, vasospasm occurs, blood pressure rises, the pulse quickens, the breakdown of nutrients increases, the activity of immune cells decreases and the release of sex hormones is blocked. Normally, this reaction is protective, but with chronic stress, constantly increased concentrations of these substances in the blood provoke pathological changes in the body, including:

• Hypertonic disease;
• Arrhythmias;
• Endocrine diseases;
• Sexual dysfunction;
• Decreased immunity;
• Gastritis, peptic ulcer;
• Mental disorders (neuroses, depression, bulimia).

As a result of these disorders, the risk of heart attack, stroke and other acute conditions increases.

Note!

Sometimes such diseases can develop even after a single severe stress. Therefore, in difficult situations it is important to be able to quickly calm down. Breathing exercises, in particular, help with this.

Psychological methods of dealing with emotional stress

The number of psychological methods for dealing with emotional stress is huge. Their effectiveness depends on the origin of the problem itself.

In order to use the correct and most appropriate exercises for the situation, it is necessary to clearly understand the cause of anxiety or imbalance (that is, take into account the psychoanalytic aspect of what caused the disturbance of calm and how strong it is), and also consciously, and not automatically, use certain methods of struggle with emotional stress.

Psychological exercises to relieve emotional stress will effectively influence the nervous system if you purposefully work on switching attention from irritation to other aspects of life.

The most basic tools to help cope with emotional stress are:

• correct visualization;
• clear motivation;
• conscious perception.

Visualization

The skill of visualization is a very important tool that allows you to cope with various kinds of physical and emotional stress . Its essence lies in the ability to create and maintain the desired mental image, which charges with positive energy, reduces negative attitudes, and helps to remember goals and priorities.

To effectively use visualization as a remedy against emotional stress, you must be able to not only create the desired image in your head, but also use other aspects of perception: mentally imagine calmness, fresh air, warm sun rays, inner joy or confidence - all the sensory attributes of the desired picture.

Visualization is the creation of images with a specific purpose. To reduce the fear of speaking in front of an audience, it is necessary not only to draw up a plan for the report, but to imagine as clearly as possible how the report is taking place, enjoy a state of calm during the report, feel the microphone in your hand, imagine interested listeners, and even the air temperature in the hall.

The secret to successful visualization is that it prepares the brain for the unknown by tuning it into a positive state.

Motivation

Motivation is the main source of most human actions, and is also an important aspect of countering stress.

Since motivation and emotions are closely interrelated, it can decrease under the influence of negative emotions, but on the other hand, the ability to motivate yourself can restore a good psychological mood. If you understand how closely interconnected this mechanism of perception and action is, you can always learn to control it.

Motivation exercises are a good way to maintain a clear vision of your own goals and objectives . The ability to remember your own motivation and why it all began is a good antidote to the emotional stress that makes goals and actions seem less significant over time than they were in the beginning.

Motivation is a powerful stimulator of human development, understanding the reasons and desires of one’s own actions, the ability to discipline one’s own impulses for the sake of a goal, and also to sacrifice secondary desires and ignore unnecessary criticism.

The ability to mentally return to your own motivation as a source of movement helps you not to take stress too seriously and quickly restore your own strength.

Perception

The ability to adjust and adjust one’s own perception is an important stress resistance skill. The quality of perception determines how clearly a person sees the picture of the world and how he interprets criticism addressed to him. Due to a strong negative impact, a person’s consciousness narrows to the stimulus and therefore perception becomes very narrow.

For example, a narrow perception leads to the fact that a person is fixated only on his own shortcomings and weaknesses, while a well-developed perception helps to adequately assess his strengths and weaknesses, the efforts expended and how the desired corresponded to reality.

Therefore, a well-developed perception helps to adequately assess the situation, plan your actions wisely and not lose motivation due to criticism from others.

The remaining 10 ways to relieve stress

There are other techniques that help you calm down and relax. Many of them have other positive effects on the body, strengthening muscles and normalizing metabolic processes.

Autogenic relaxation

This technique, developed by German psychotherapist Johann Schulz, includes several exercises that are based on self-hypnosis. Sit down, relax, close your eyes. Mentally repeat phrases that characterize the state of individual organs. At the same time, you must translate these phrases into real sensations.

• “My left leg is getting heavy,” “My right leg is getting heavy,” etc.;
• “My hand is getting warm”;
• “My heart is completely calm”;
• “I’m breathing evenly”;
• “I feel warmth in my solar plexus”;
• “My forehead is getting cool.”

Muscle relaxation

We do not always focus on how tense our muscles are, but they are tense precisely as a result of stress - the body, as it were, is preparing to protect itself from danger. Therefore, it is very important to learn how to effectively relax your muscles. To do this, you need to sit on a chair and consistently tense and relax muscles in different parts of the body, moving from top to bottom:

• Facial muscles (wrinkling the forehead, drawing the eyebrows together, closing the eyes followed by relaxation);
• Neck and shoulder girdle (pulling the neck into the shoulders);
• Arms (flexion and extension);
• Abdominal muscles;
• Legs.

Perfect visualization

Try, in a relaxed state with your eyes closed, to recreate the image of your ideal place where you would like to relax. You can imagine yourself on the warm sand of the sea coast, in a sunny clearing in the forest or on a bench in a cozy park. The most important thing is that the image is close to you.

Breathing from the diaphragm

In ordinary life, we most often “breathe with our chests.” As you inhale, the chest expands, but the stomach remains motionless. From a physiological point of view, such breathing is less efficient, so we are forced to make more breathing movements per minute. To make breathing deeper and more complete, you need to learn to “breathe with your stomach” using a special exercise.

Lie on your back, place one palm on your chest, the other on the front abdominal wall. Inhale through your nose so that the air goes down, fills your lungs and straightens your diaphragm. In this case, the chest remains motionless, and the palm lying on the stomach is raised. During exhalation through the mouth, the stomach retracts.

Use meditation

Meditation is a kind of “psychic exercise” based on deep concentration on your inner world, emotions or on an external object. Many methods of meditation have been developed, aimed at achieving different goals, but for all these methods, detachment from the outside world and from unresolved problems is important. Such psychological training helps to effectively cope with stress.

Yoga will help you

Most eastern practices set themselves the goal of achieving inner harmony, finding a balance between the spiritual and the physical. Yoga classes involve not only physical exercise, but also harmonization of the psyche. This combination is the best way to help in the fight against nervous tension, and also teaches us to accept failures and difficulties more easily.

Breathing yoga

Some areas of yoga (for example, kriya yoga) take as a basis the technique of pranayama - control of prana. Prana is vital energy that is dissolved in the air and, with proper breathing, enters the body, nourishes not only the physical body, but also the spiritual component.

One of the simplest and most accessible exercises in the Kriya Yoga arsenal is breathing through one nostril. Close your right nostril with your finger and inhale slowly. Then move your finger to the other side and exhale through the second nostril. Then repeat the task, starting with the left half of the nose.

Chinese Emotional Freedom Technique

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a type of acupressure where biologically active points are stimulated by tapping them with your fingertips. The technique of emotional freedom is based on the principles of traditional Chinese medicine, which associates any painful condition with a disruption in the flow of energy along the meridians of our body. EFT involves stimulating certain points that stabilize energy flows, which ultimately leads to getting rid of fears and obsessions, and to inner peace.

Aromatherapy

Essential oils of some plants can have a calming effect on our psyche and relieve stress after hard work. Such plants include lavender, ylang-ylang, bergamot, mint, tangerine. Oils can be added to a hot bath or dripped into aroma lamps.

Unity with nature

A picnic in nature is one of the most effective ways to combat stress without physical exercise or spiritual practices. Unity with nature in itself leads to spiritual harmony, and fresh air, sunbathing, swimming in the river, and outdoor games help strengthen the body and reduce the concentration of stress hormones.

Ideomotorics as a method of dealing with tension in psychology

Psychological exercises to relieve emotional stress also actively use the ideomotor method, popular among professional athletes, as a good way to relax. Ideomotor or “mental movement” means that “motor” actions occur in thoughts, “ideo”.

Thus, ideomotor is one of many types of visualization that has a specific use for improving professional skills, especially among athletes and musicians.

The ideomotor exercise is very simple:

• In a relaxed position, it is necessary to create a clear image of an imaginary future situation.
• The main focus of ideomotor is the mental representation of one's own movements, or any physical activity. When performing this exercise, you need to imagine as accurately as possible how the muscles in one or another part of the body react to changes in movements, feel the heaviness and tension inherent in the chosen activity. And the most important thing is to feel confident that all actions will lead to success.
• In order for the imaginary mental image to be maximally perceived by the subconscious, you can not only concentrate on physical sensations, but also supplement them with verbal descriptions, giving the movements more significance.

Such mental training helps improve your own skills, consolidate learned exercises, and also relieve muscle and mental tension.

Simple psychological exercises to combat stress

Psychological exercises to relieve emotional stress help reduce the impact of stress . They restore psycho-emotional stability, improve concentration and restore energy.

Exercise "Problem"

The Problem exercise helps relieve stress and increase confidence after any negative experience. To do this, you need to clearly identify the problem that affected your mood and begin to consider it. A comprehensive analysis helps to see any situation in the context of global and difficult-to-solve conflicts, which is why the tension around one’s own problem is reduced.

Exercise “Inner Light”

The “Inner Light” exercise helps calm your nerves and transform negative emotions into a positive attitude.

For this exercise, a basic visualization technique is used: you need to imagine a luminous beam descending into the crown and piercing the spine, brightening the limbs of the arms and legs. When imagining this visualization, you need to mentally feel the warmth and calm that penetrates the body along with the light. Doing this exercise for 5 minutes can relieve stress and improve your well-being.

Exercise “Mood”

Mood Exercise is a branch of art therapy that helps you express emotions and calm yourself through color, shapes, and free-form drawing.

Its essence is to quickly throw out your own emotions on a piece of paper in the form of a drawing - colors, words and shapes - by drawing with convenient materials (pencils, felt-tip pens or liners). Usually, after 15 minutes of drawing, the emotional intensity subsides significantly and the mind becomes clearer.

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A great way to distract yourself and practice concentration is to look at any object in the room.

Having previously chosen an object for concentration, the next step is to examine it for as long as possible, asking various questions regarding its shape, color, style features and history of origin. The more questions that arise during consideration, the better the process of distraction from immediate problems goes.

Balloon

The Balloon Exercise is a great way to reduce stress, overcome panic attacks and reduce anxiety.

To perform this exercise correctly, you need to sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and begin to breathe deeply. After a few minutes of concentrating on your breathing, you need to imagine a balloon in the center of your abdomen, which increases and decreases along with your breathing.

After several minutes of concentration on the ball, you can imagine how it becomes a large container for all the negative experiences that it was able to absorb from the body.

7 candles

The 7 Candles exercise is a good way to relax and train your concentration. To perform the exercise correctly, you need to relax - sit comfortably, close your eyes and breathe evenly for several minutes. Next, you need to imagine 7 candles at a distance of 1.5 m from you that need to be blown out.

When performing the exercise, it is advisable to visualize in detail each attempt to extinguish the candle - lungs full of air, exhale as much as possible, watch how the flame trembles.

Exercise "Lampshade"

The “Lampshade” exercise will help balance your nervous state and relieve emotional stress. The task is to imagine a lamp at chest level with the lampshade pointing downwards. This arrangement of light symbolizes comfort, warmth and coziness. It is important to feel it.

On the other hand, if some kind of emotional tension arises, this lamp with a lampshade appears to be shining upward, right into the eyes, which makes it uncomfortable and painful. The task is to mentally return the lamp to a comfortable position in moments of tension and feel the previous comfort.

A complete set of anti-stress exercises

Therapeutic gymnastics, which helps overcome stress, includes several diverse elements aimed at relaxation and increasing vitality.

1. Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms extended along your torso. Tighten the muscles of the core and limbs, stretch the top of your head towards the ceiling. Stay like this for a few seconds until you feel slightly tired. Then begin to sequentially relax the muscles from top to bottom: head and neck, shoulders, arms, back, stomach, legs.
2. In the same starting position, extend your arms up, spreading your fingers. Stretch towards the ceiling for 5 seconds and then relax.
3. Place your fingertips on your shoulder joints. As you inhale, raise your elbows up and throw your head back at the same time. As you exhale, return to the original position.
4. Sit on the floor with your legs crossed cross-legged. Squeeze your right hand into a fist, imagining that it contains a lemon from which you need to squeeze the juice. Clench your fist tightly for a few seconds, then transfer the imaginary fruit to your left hand and continue to “squeeze” it.
5. Sitting on the floor, press your bent legs to your chest and clasp them with your arms. Lift your feet off the floor so that the support remains only on the buttocks, round your back. Rock slowly back and forth, from side to side for at least a minute.
6. Sit on your heels with your legs tucked under you and your knees slightly apart. Lower your torso onto your bent legs so that your forehead touches the floor. The arms lie freely, parallel to the shins, palms facing up. Maintain the pose for at least 30 seconds.
7. Imagine that there are 7 burning candles in front of you that need to be put out. Consistently “blow out” them all and imagine that you are left in complete darkness, freeing your head from obsessive thoughts.

Group exercises

Psychological exercises can also be effectively performed in a group of several people. This will not only be useful for relieving emotional stress, but also for improving your communication skills and muscle relaxation.

Their main advantage is that, unlike individual exercises, group exercises involve more physical elements and focus less on the ability to visualize and maintain focus on a mental image or breathing for a long time.

Exercise “Hermit Crab”

In the “Hermit Crab” exercise, all participants are grouped in groups of 3: two, holding hands, depict a “house”, and the third participant is a hermit crab. There is also a leading role in the exercise, which is performed alternately by different participants.

Psychological exercises to relieve emotional stress

The driver gives the following instructions:

1. Crayfish are looking for houses (this command is carried out only by hermit crabs, they need to leave the existing house and find a new one).
2. The houses are looking for crayfish (this time the “shells”, without breaking their hands, are looking for new residents).
3. Hurricane (after this command, all participants chaotically begin to look for a new pair).

For the exercise, it is desirable that the number of hermit crabs be one more than the number of houses. The participant left without a house in the next circle plays the role of driver.

This exercise helps improve motor skills, concentration and switch from thoughts.

Exercise "Sleeping Lions"

The “Sleeping Lions” exercise trains the skills of controlling emotions and switching your own attention.

For the exercise, it is necessary to divide all participants into the driver and the lions. All participants portray lions, which are known to sleep calmly with their eyes open, not reacting to minor irritations. The driver’s task is to force the lions to show an emotional reaction (for example, laughing or laughing) by all permitted means.

No touching or swear words are allowed in this exercise. If one of the lions somehow showed a reaction to the driver’s manipulations, he gets up and begins to “disturb” the other lions. The most persistent lion wins.

Exercise “Two things”

This exercise develops motor skills, helps distribute attention to several objects, and control the level of information perception.

The exercise requires 3 participants and a driver. The driver and one of the participants sit on two chairs, one opposite the other. The latter makes arbitrary movements, and the driver must repeat them, be a living mirror. Other participants ask the driver questions at a fast pace, which he must answer without interrupting his movements. At the end of the timer, participants change places.

Exercise “Pros and Cons”

This exercise develops intelligence and helps you look at a problem from different angles, analyzing its good and bad consequences. This approach helps to understand that the perception of a life situation is always a subjective choice that each person makes independently.

Group members are divided into several people for discussion. The purpose of the exercise is to come up with 2 life situations and analyze them from different angles, highlighting several pros and cons.

In this exercise, it is very important to take into account even minor aspects and views of the event, this will help to see the diversity of views on the problem. After each group discusses its situation, subgroup members present the results of their discussions to the other group members.

Psychological exercises, performed in a group or individually, are the best way to relieve emotional stress and maintain vitality and mental health.

How to relieve stress in children

An unformed child's psyche is even more susceptible to stress. These include adaptation to kindergarten, school, learning difficulties, and problems communicating with the team. For children, exercises and psychological training to relieve stress should be done in a playful way, be unobtrusive, and interesting.

1. Take your child's favorite soft toy, such as a teddy bear. Sit next to your baby and invite him to play. Bring the toy to the child’s face and say: “The bear kisses the forehead,” “The bear kisses the cheeks,” “The bear kisses the nose.” Explain that the bear cub wants to make friends with him. As a result, the child should relax and smile.
2. Bring a few large toys that your son or daughter especially likes. Let the child hug each toy in turn and say something nice to it.
3. Invite your child to choose any object in the room and tell about it in the first person: how he lives, what he does, what plans he makes for the future. This game teaches compassion and empathy.
4. It is very important for a child to learn how to correctly express and interpret their emotions. Invite him to come up with the ending of the phrases: “I’m offended when...”, “If mom is not at home, then...”, “I get angry if...”, “I get sad because...”. The continuation can be expanded and detailed.
5. Place several items on the table. The baby must remember their location. Then he closes his eyes, and you change places. After the child opens his eyes, ask what has changed.
6. The following task will help you relax quickly. Say out loud: “The sun has risen, the flower is waking up.” The child straightens up, raises his arms up, and reaches for the ceiling. “The wind blew a little, bending the stem to the ground.” At the same time, the baby shrinks into a ball on the floor. “The wind has completely died down” - the baby stands up straight again. “The sun has gone to bed, and the flower has been sleeping for a long time” - the child relaxes.

The ability to cope with your mental state is important for both adults and children. First of all, you need to choose an effective set of exercises to combat stress. If you do them every day after work, then with a high probability you will be able to do without the help of a psychotherapist and sedatives.